Antibiotics prescribing practice among patients with urinary tract infection at outpatient department, the case of Dilchora referral hospital, Eastern Ethiopia: an institutional retrospective cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate prescription of antibiotics is a global public health challenge. Widespread use, misuse, or inappropriate prescribing has resulted in unnecessary expenditure on drugs, raised risk of adverse reactions, the development of antimicrobial resistance, and increment in health care costs. There is a limited practice in rational prescribing of antibiotics in the management of Urinary tract infection (UTI) in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To assess antibiotic prescribing practice in the treatment of patients with UTI at outpatient department (OPD), Dilchora referral hospital, Eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from January 7 to March 14, 2021. Data were collected from 600 prescription papers using systematic random sampling method. World Health Organization’s standardized core prescribing indicators was used. RESULTS: A total of 600 prescriptions containing antibiotics prescribed for patients with UTIs were observed during the study period. Of these, 415 (69.19%) were females and 210 (35%) were in the age group of 31–44 years. The number of generic drugs and antibiotics prescribed per encounter was 1.60 and 1.28, respectively. The percentage of antibiotics per prescription was found to be 27.83%. About 88.40% of antibiotics were prescribed by generic names. Fluoroquinolones were the most frequently prescribed class of drugs for the treatment of patients with UTIs. CONCLUSION: The prescribing practice of antibiotics in patients with UTIs was found to be good as the drugs were prescribed in generic name.